【Introduction】In 1986, due to the needs of railway construction, several Hubei Provincial Museums joined forces and experts gathered to rescue and excavate a large luxury Chu tomb, although it was stolen, but thankfully, this large tomb named Baoshan was not only well preserved, but also unearthed nearly 2,000 precious cultural relics, including the Mandarin Duck Cup of the Chu Cave House Flower Candle Night Drinking Wine, as well as a number of "China's First" unparalleled national treasures, such as
▌ China's first lacquer box!
▌ China's first dragon head staff!
▌ China's first folding bed!
▌ China's first brush!
▌ China's first comic strip!
......
Then, please follow me through the tunnel of time, to open the history of the Chu state, which was once flourishing, and to review the thrilling and sensational Chinese archaeological discovery. Baoshan Ōzuka is like a thousand-year-old wine that has been sealed on the altar, and once it is opened, it will float in all fields, which will amaze everyone's eyes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="281" > reason for the excavation</h1>
On February 28, 1986, the construction of a Jingsha Railway from Jingmen in the north to Shashi in the south was officially started. According to the design plan, the Jingsha Railway passes by Wangchang Village, Shilipu Town, Shayang County, Jingmen City, at this time, a small mound shaped like a dirt bun is blocked on the railway planning line, and the locals call it Baoshan.
Baoshan is not large, with a diameter of 54 meters, about 6 meters high, and several bulldozers can be bulldozed in one day. However, the large area around Baoshan is a sacred place of Chu culture in the minds of archaeologists in Jingmen and even the entire Hubei Province. Starting from Baoshan Mountain and within 5 kilometers southwest, this large area of mounds is also known as Jishan.
Jishan is not high, and there is no scenery, but it is a powerful princely state since the Han Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the capital of the Chu State "Yin" is located, because it is located in the south of Jishan, so it is also called Ji'nan City.
Kiyama
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="280" > the history of the Chu state</h1>
From 689 BC, the powerful Chu state moved the capital to Ji Nancheng, to 278 BC, the Qin general Bai Qi conquered the capital, the Chu state collapsed, in this long 411 years, a total of 20 generations of Chu kings, as well as Sun Shu'ao, Wu Zixu, Qu Yuan, Huang Xie and many other Chu elites here interpreted countless legends of the intestines.
● White up:
White up, (?) –257 BC), courtesy name Gongsun Qi of the Warring States Policy, was a native of The Qin Dynasty (present-day Baijia Village, Changxing Town, Mei County, Shaanxi Province) at the end of the Warring States period, and was descended from the surname Qi. Descendants of Bai Gongsheng of the Chu State. Many of the Bai epitaphs of the Tang Dynasty detail that their ancestors were Bai Gongsheng, the prince of Chuping.
After the capital was moved from the Chu state, Jishan, with its lush vegetation and slightly higher terrain, as a treasure of feng shui, naturally became the resting place of the nobles of the Chu state and even the king of Chu.
After the founding of New China, the protection of cultural relics gradually entered the right track, and archaeologists discovered very early that the so-called Baoshan Mountain was actually a tall sealed mound of the chu super tomb. At the same time, on the left side of Baoshan Mountain, there are 4 other Chu national tombs arranged from south to north, and Baoshan is undoubtedly the largest of them. Such a huge mausoleum is not trivial at first glance, so who is its owner?
After being included in the scope of project construction, the rescue excavation of Baoshan Otsuka was officially launched, and the archaeological team formed by the Jingmen City Museum was quickly formed. Wild excavations are full of unknowns, and many questions are often answered until the end. However, for the grand tomb of the Nobles of the Chu State in front of it, the exploration stage alone has already revealed its difference.
According to locals, the tomb was previously entered, with houses and bricks inside. Some people say that this tomb is the tomb of Shen Baoxu.
● Crying Qin Ting:
In 506 BC, Shen Baoxu's former friend Wu Zixu attacked the State of Chu with Wu forces, and after attacking the capital of Yingdu, King Zhao of Chu fled to Sui. At this time, in order to vent his anger, Wu Zixu excavated the tomb of King Chu Ping and dragged out his remains to be whipped in public, angering many Chu people. Shen Baoxu fled to the mountains in fear, and while denouncing Wu Zixu's despicable behavior, he must counterattack and calculate the reckoning, and shame on the snow. In order to restore the country, Shen Baoxu went to the Qin State to ask for help, at first the Qin State did not agree, and the disappointed Shen Baoxu cried outside the walls of the Qin State for seven days and seven nights, dripping water, and finally touched the Qin Monarch, known in history as "Weeping Qin Ting". The Duke of Qin Ai personally gave "No Clothes" to recruit soldiers and horses, sent 500 chariots, and sent the doctor Zi Man and Zi Hu to send troops to rescue Chu. The Wu army had to retreat due to the front and back attacks of the Qin and Chu forces, coupled with the internal civil unrest. After king Chu Zhao's restoration, he wanted to reward Shen Baoxu, but he was rejected, and then he took his family to live in seclusion in the mountains and forests, idle clouds and wild cranes, and did not ask about current affairs. Since then, Shen Baoxu has been known as a model of China's loyal figures, which has been passed down to this day.
Is the owner of the tomb really this moral model?
● Shen Baoxu:
Shen Baoxu (born and died unknown), surnamed 芈 , 蚡穆氏 , name Bao Xu , because he was sealed in Shenyi , so called Shen Baoxu , was a descendant of Chu Baoxu ( Chu Li Wang ) , also known as Wang Sun Baoxu , a member of the Huaxia clan , a native of present-day Jingshan , Hubei Province , and a doctor of the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="279" > three holes</h1>
▌ Tomb stolen
▌ Someone has gone in
▌ There are many tomb tiles under the sealing soil
Is it true that the tomb is not a Chu tomb, nor does it belong to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but the two Han Dynasties where brick chamber tombs prevailed?
The shape of the tomb has not yet been clarified, and there is another regrettable discovery at the scene - the team members found three robbery holes of different sizes, the largest one with a diameter of three or four meters. Due to its age, the cave was already full of silt.
Soon after the discovery of the robbery cave, a large number of exploration data showed that under the shade of the tall sealing soil, the tomb of Baoshan Ōtsuka was in the shape of an armour, which was an unusually huge vertical pit tomb, the so-called tomb bricks, which were illusory.
This is a real super tomb, the length and width of the pit opening are more than 30 meters, and the tomb passage extending to the east is also 19 meters long, almost certainly the tomb belongs to the Chu nobles, and it is one of the largest Chu tombs in the history of archaeological excavations.
After preliminary calculations, it was found that to clean such a super tomb, only 300,000 cubic meters of earth needed to be excavated. If it is transported with a truck with a load of 5 tons, it will take 120,000 vehicles.
Next, the question that plagued the exploration team members was that the tomb had already been stolen and worn? Are there any funerary items in the tomb?
Through exploration, it was learned that one of the robbery caves was stopped at a depth of 10 meters, while the other robbery caves continued to extend to the burial chamber.
The cave in front of you, which is more than 10 meters deep, is the largest one. Could it be that the spell of "ten tombs and nine voids" in the field of archaeology will be staged again? For a moment, the atmosphere at the scene was very tense, and people were eager to understand what kind of scene was in the deep grave.
The Baoshan Tomb wrapped in sealed soil, drilled with a probe shovel, wanted to reach the living soil layer at the bottom of the tomb, had to go deep into the ground 20 meters. At this time, for each drill, the team members spend several hours. When the mound was hit down to a depth of 16 meters, the probe shovel hit the coffin plate of the coffin room, and the sharp probe shovel brought an important message - the fragment of the bamboo mat.
Drilling so deeply, the drillers used ropes to hoist the shovels downward to obtain tomb information. The bamboo mats brought out by the probe suggest that the burial environment should be very good. Could it be that the destruction of tombs by the robbery is not as serious as people think? Isn't it too much to worry about?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="278" > rare "fire pit tomb"</h1>
At this moment, a "bizarre" accident suddenly occurred at the scene.
At that time, when an archaeologist was exploring the hole, he heard a buzzing noise below, and then a puff of smoke came up, and the archaeologist was smoking at the time, and the smoke was lit instantly, burning his eyebrows. After the flames were quickly extinguished, they faced a phenomenon that had never been experienced in the history of archaeology. People were in a panic at first, but after the panic, the reacting archaeologists suddenly became excited, and the flame proved that the underground was well sealed, the burial chamber had not been opened for many years, and the organic matter fermented in a closed environment, thus producing biogas and being ignited by the spark of cigarettes.
Could it be that the third hole still did not penetrate the rafters? Or is it that although the robbery cave entered the rafters, the tomb robbery occurred shortly after burial, and the robbery cave was immediately backfilled, thus creating conditions for the generation of biogas.
For more than 2,300 years, for tomb robbers, the sealing soil of the tomb is like a torch burning in the night, which is both eye-catching and tempting enough. Until this moment, people are still worried that most of the archaeological excavation funds for the entire Line of the Jingsha Railway will be invested in the next excavation. The archaeological team is worried that the archaeological excavations that have cost a lot of money will not be found in vain.
Subsequently, combining various factors, the archaeological team characterized the tomb as a "fire pit tomb".
The "fire pit tomb" is different from the "water pit tomb" where the burial chamber is soaked by groundwater because of the high groundwater level. In the Chu tombs, the water pit tombs, which account for the vast majority, although beneficial to the preservation of organic matter cultural relics, are not the same for metal objects such as bronzes.
If the Baoshan Ōtsuka in front of you is really a very rare "fire pit tomb", then its significance will be extraordinary.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="277" > excavation site on an unprecedented scale</h1>
>> crowds
In June 1986, the excavation of Baoshan Otsuka officially began, in order to clean up the tall mounds, almost all the villagers in Shilipu Town near Baoshan were mobilized, and people shouldered the backs and joined the labor without pay, the scene was very spectacular. The number of migrant workers mobilized every day reaches thousands at its peak. Coupled with tens of thousands of people watching, the excavation site can be described as a sea of people.
In addition to the temporary mobilization of labor, because the tomb is very rare and unprecedented, more and more technical support personnel are arriving at the scene. At first, more than 20 team members were drawn from the Hubei Provincial Museum and the Jingmen Museum to undertake excavation work at the site.
When the excavation of the tomb entered the tomb pit stage, nearly 100 professionals from Wuhan University and the neighboring Jingzhou Museum, Xiangfan Museum, Enshi Museum and Suizhou Museum arrived at the scene. Later, when the rafters were opened, more than 200 experts and scholars from all over the country rushed to the scene.
>> mysterious steps
When the seal was cleared, the tomb opening was finally presented on the working surface of the excavation site. At this time, people noticed that the tomb opening was 34 meters long and 32 meters wide, plus the 19 meters long and 10.3 meters wide tomb passage, with an area of nearly 1300 square meters. After determining the scope of the tomb opening, the team members also found one of the most typical and highest level funeral systems in Chu tombs in Baoshan - steps.
Tomb openings
There are 14 steps in Baoshan Ōtsuka, each of which is nearly one meter high, which is not for people to enter and exit. The reason why the Chu tomb formed a ladder was initially a constraint of natural conditions, but later it soon became a symbol of the status of the tomb owner, and its number had strict regulations.
Compared with the Yellow River Basin in the north, the soil of the Yangtze River Basin is relatively loose and the erectity is poor, so unlike the Zhongyuan tombs in the same period when the four walls are upright and even the mouth is small and the bottom is large, the large Chu tomb can only be made into a step shape, and the mouth is large and the bottom is small. Starting from the surface, the steps shrink down one step at a time, leading to the rafters placed at the bottom of the pit. The deeper the tomb, the more steps there are, and the status is naturally higher.
Northern burials
The steps correspond to the level, so what does the 14 steps mean?
As early as January 1978, archaeologists in Hubei Province excavated a Chu state tomb in Jiangling County, and even the volume and depth of this tomb named Tianxingguan No. 1 were slightly inferior to that of Baoshan Dazuka, but the 15-step burial system was very close to the identity of the tomb owner second only to the King of Chu and the Fengjun. So, who does the 14-step Otazuka belong to? Could it really be a Shen Baoxu with aristocratic status?
Continuing to excavate downwards, when cleaning up the fill in the grave, in addition to the layering conditions and the various inclusions that may exist, the team members should be most concerned about the deepest hole. Where does it end up, and does it enter the rafters?
>> mysterious tomb shrouded in mist
In the process of cleaning up the soil of Baoshan Ōtsuka, the excavation site has always been shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere. Every morning, when the archaeologists came to the excavation site, baoshan Otsuka was always clouded with mist, but there was no such phenomenon in other places around, which was very magical and puzzling.
Since combustible gases have been ignited before, people think that this fog-like thing is biogas. But where in the tomb did so much organic matter produce so much biogas? Could it be that there are a large number of martyrs buried deep in the graves? However, the Chu tombs of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period have rarely adopted the system of human martyrdom.
As the cleaning of the pit fill continued, it was found that the hole, although thick and thin, extended downward. But when the fill was cleared to a position nearly 8 meters above the surface, some blue-gray mud suddenly appeared in the hole. This kind of blue mud is green paste mud, but it usually appears in the vicinity of the rafters. Nowadays, the presence of green paste mud in the middle of the tomb is most likely a signal that the tomb has been stolen and worn, and the atmosphere at the scene has suddenly become solemn.
All the way down
● Green paste mud:
It is a kind of soil commonly used in tombs in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the texture is delicate, the viscosity is large, the wetness is small, and it is blue-gray when wet, so it is called green paste mud, which is white or blue-white after drying, so it is also called white paste mud.
The main components of white paste mud are silica, aluminum trioxide, iron trioxide and calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and other oxides, which are viscous, compact and have a strong antiseptic effect.
Changsha Chu tombs mostly use white paste mud, a few Qin tombs, Shandong, Henan part of the tomb also use white paste mud, but not representative.
What puzzled the archaeologists was that if it was stolen, then why was there biogas from the seal?
>> surprised to see a human skeleton > "ghost blowing lights"
Digging down from the sealed soil, the depth has reached 15 meters. It may be that the tomb robbers have a deviation when digging the robbery hole, and after the robbery hole is vertically downward, it begins to fold to the position of the tomb passage, and then extends towards the rafters, and when it is 1.5 meters away from the rafters, the robbery suddenly stops.
As the excavation work continued to advance, the archaeologists found that the tomb robbers were like headless flies in the ground, digging east and west, repeatedly adjusting their direction. Because the tomb was so large that it was beyond their imagination, it was impossible to accurately locate the location of the rafters. Therefore, until the end of the robbery, the tomb robbers did not know that the robbery was only one wall away from the tomb.
▌ Bronze spatula
▌ Hemp rope
▌ A human skeleton
In such a deep underground, the zigzag and narrow robbery holes are even more obstructive of the circulation of air. To this day, the reason why there is a plot such as "ghost blowing the lamp" when robbing tombs in many literary works is because the ancients did not know that this was the role of lack of oxygen - when oxygen was exhausted, the lamp was naturally extinguished.
The plot of "Ghost Blowing Lights" appeared in Otsuka, Baoshan.
But at the moment of crisis, the robbery cave not only did not bring damage to the tomb, but also objectively played a protective role, because the later tomb robbers saw several robbery caves and thought that the things inside must have been taken away, and naturally they no longer had the idea of hitting it.
>> opened the chamber and > the armed police stood guard
At nearly 10 meters underground, a large amount of green paste mud finally appeared, which meant that the rafters were close at hand. Excluding the interference of the cave, it was found that the Otatsuka of Baoshan was indeed very well preserved.
Located at the bottom of the tomb, baoshan Ōtsuka is 6.32 meters long, 6.21 meters wide and 3.1 meters high, making it very large. Inside the chamber, the Chu people divided the space of nearly 123 cubic meters into 5 chambers, which is closely related to the identity of the tomb owner.
The embodiment of hierarchical status in the Chu tomb, in addition to the steps of the tomb, another important feature is the number of chambers. Most of the small Chu tomb chambers only have three spaces: the coffin room (box), the side room (box) and the head room (box). Otayama Otsuka, on the other hand, has more west and north rooms.
Three spaces
Five spaces
Prior to this, the Tianxingguan No. 1 Tomb excavated by archaeologists in 1978, because the owner of the tomb was the second only to the Chu King, the interior of his chamber was divided into 7 spaces, which is also the largest number of sub-chambers that can be determined in the entire history of Chu tomb excavations.
So, who is the owner of Otatsuka Otsuka? Which level will the five rooms correspond to? Archaeologists believe that the identity of the owner of this tomb should belong to an official at the level of a doctor (ministerial level). Speculation about the identity of the owner of the tomb has further strengthened the confidence of the archaeologists to continue to excavate the Ōtsuka of Baoshan.
Due to the large amount of cleaning up of the tomb sealing soil and the filling of the tomb pit, it took a lot of energy, and by the time the excavation reached the rafters, the time had entered 1987. Knowing the news that Otayama Otsuka was about to open the rafters, more and more people rushed to the scene. The governor and the director of the department came, lived in the town of Shilipu, and sat waiting for the tomb chamber to open.
People can't wait to see how the great aristocrat of the Chu kingdom would continue his luxury in another world more than 2,300 years ago.
>> blue-yellow bamboo mats
On the morning of January 11, 1987, on the 18-meter-deep working surface, the green paste mud wrapped around the rafter room had been cleaned up, the cover plate was close to the square, and the huge rafter room with a side length of more than 7 meters was completely revealed. At this moment, on the rafter cover, the bamboo mat covered according to the Chu burial customs is still clearly marked in latitude and longitude, and the blue-yellow bamboo mat looks like it has just been laid. The bamboo mats, which have been buried in the dirt for so long, are not only as new in color, but also have good toughness and can be rolled up, which is really amazing. Seeing such a situation, everyone has become more and more confident in the preservation environment of the tomb. Next, as long as this layer of cover is uncovered, the scene when the Chu Guo Dagui was buried will reappear again at the moment when it was frozen 2300 years ago.
>> cover > red paint
On this day, before removing the cover plate, the archaeologists analyzed, mapped and photographed the scene as usual to preserve the most primitive state before the excavation of the cultural relics. It was found that the so-called chamber covers were actually thick wood weighing 2 tons and 7 meters long each. However, when the heavy chamber cover was uncovered, there was a thinner layer of compartment cover underneath. At this time, it can be seen that about 50 square meters of rafters are divided into 5 spaces, in the middle is the coffin room where the owner of the tomb is buried, and the surrounding four chambers are used to store funerary items.
Each piece weighs 2 tons and is 7 meters long -1
Each piece weighs 2 tons and is 7 meters long -2
A piece of red
After being closed for more than 2,300 years, baoshan Otsuka made his first appearance, leaving the deepest impression on the archaeologists was a piece of red tongtong. And it is precisely because the burial chamber is sealed that the red paint on the inside of the rafter plate is perfectly preserved.
In addition to the bright red color, one detail was also noticed, which was that the chamber was not a dry "fire pit tomb" as initially speculated. Most of the rafters in front of me, which are more than 2 meters deep, are soaked in stagnant water. At this moment, people finally understood that although baoshan Ōzuka was high, it was still a "puddle tomb", but it did not flood the entire burial chamber like other low-lying tombs, so the upper biogas would gush out of the probe hole and be accidentally ignited. At the same time, when excavating and filling the soil, the mist that hangs over the tomb is more of a continuous water vapor.
Next, the successful extraction of cultural relics as soon as possible has become the key to archaeological excavations.
In this huge 50-square-meter rafter room, how many funerary items are buried, and what are the rare treasures, and can the mystery of the identity of the tomb owner be answered?
The excavation of Ōtsuka in Baoshan is about to enter the most exciting stage.
>> red lacquer > wood lacquer technique
The cleaning of the Otatsuka chamber was carried out in a manner in which the cover was all uncovered and each chamber was carried out at the same time. Through close observation, archaeologists once again confirmed the reason for the redness inside the rafters.
Long ago, the Chu people living in the Yangtze River Basin mastered a very skilled wooden lacquer technology. Today, many of the lacquered wood tools excavated from the Chu tomb have remained in perfect condition. However, the discovery of such bright and vivid colors and ornaments in Baoshan Otsuka still shocks the hearts of every archaeologist.
So, what kind of paint will remain so vivid for more than 2300 years, and it will be intact, not peeling, not falling off, as if it was just brushed on? According to archaeologists, this is a kind of earth paint, also known as raw paint, is a kind of original paint that is different from modern technology, and the soil paint made directly from the sap of the sumac tree is more resistant to high temperature and corrosion, so it is still radiant after more than 2300 years of invasion.
Lacquer box -1
Lacquer box -2
>> bright colors > the regret of oxidation
However, after a few minutes, the original bright colors of the excavation site began to fade, and the lacquered wood gradually turned dark red. The cause of color fading is mainly oxidation. After undergoing a long-term sealing, the suspended oxidation reaction is carried out violently, and in a very short period of time, the excavated cultural relics will once again complete the process it should have gone, and in archaeology, such a phenomenon is called "time hourglass", which is one of the reasons why the cultural relics department does not advocate active excavation of ancient tombs.
In order not to expose the cultural relics to the air for a long time and brave the bone-chilling cold wind of the deep winter of the Jianghan Plain, the archaeologists first began to try to extract the funerary products floating on the surface of the water. The water in the chamber is not clear, showing a dark brown color similar to black. There is also a layer of broken silk fabrics and feathers floating on the surface of the water.
In the excavation of baoshan Ōzuka, the order of extracting cultural relics is carried out in four sub-chambers at the same time, and this article introduces the extraction situation and cultural relics content one by one from the south room >> the east room >> the west room >> the north room.
Finally, the artifacts of the coffin (bedroom) of the tomb owner are extracted.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="276" > South Room</h1>
>> the south room > full of cultural relics
Next, the archaeologists began to tentatively extract the relics of the South Chamber and practice their hands. South room, 4.47 meters long and 1.5 meters wide.
Uncovering the cover of the south chamber, people found that the water was full of cultural relics, most of which were wrapped in textiles or bamboo mats, so it was not clear what it was for the time being, but some lacquered wood tools and larger weapons were clearly recognizable, which made the archaeologists excited.
At this time, due to the turbid water in the rafters, people cannot observe the situation under the water, so they must first hang their bodies upside down and clean up a shelter by hand before entering the rafters to clean up.
Extract artifacts
Water in the rafters
Archaeologists are well aware that all kinds of funerary products in ancient tombs, after more than 2300 years of corrosion, hydrolysis, carbonization, its strength and toughness are greatly weakened, and a little careless extraction will cause countless compensatory losses to cultural relics, so the extraction of cultural relics is also a very important technical work, which is completely different from barbaric tomb robbery.
The distribution of funerary items in the south chamber is very uneven, even some messy, some spears, go and other long weapons are half floating and half floating in the water, while bow and arrow weapons are simply hung directly on the partition near the coffin, and what sinks to the bottom of the water is a relatively heavy carriage and horse tool, and some armor, shields and other protective gear.
Weapons floating in the rafters
Bows and arrows hanging from the walls
A feathered weapon
Weapons hanging on one side
During the clean-up process, the team members found that some of the long weapons were covered with colorful feathers, and after more than 2300 years, these fragile feathers were surprisingly tough. Judging from this detail, it is obvious that the weapons with feathers are not really used for war, but as tools for honor guards. The most surprising thing is that on the siding on the west side of the south chamber of baoshan Ōzuka, using hanging nails, the Chu people hung a bunch of hair here, which was identified as a bunch of human hair, which also lasted for more than 2300 years without decay, which shows the high degree of sealing of the tomb.
But the question is who is the owner of the hair? Why is it hung here?
Although the south room of Baoshan Otsuka is relatively large, it is only 7 square meters, and the cultural relics are mainly carriage and horse tools and weapons, including carriage rails, car umbrellas, car guards, horse wheels, horsebits, thrifts, yarn covers and other carriage and horse tools, bows and arrows, bamboo (fú), spears, ge, halberds, shū (shū), wooden shields, human armor, horse armor and other weapons, plus silk objects and bone shells originally stored in the carriage, etc., there are 1500 cultural relics unearthed.
There are a large number of carriages and horses and weapons unearthed in the south room, but one of the spears has aroused people's doubts, its length is far longer than ordinary spears, and the shape of the head is a bit like a sword.
Spears are a common offensive weapon that appeared during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Qin Feng sang: "Don't you know that you have no clothes, and you are robed with your son... Wang Yuxingshi, repair my spear, Yu Zi with the same vendetta. ”
The Book of Poetry. Qin Feng》
Among the weapons unearthed in the south room, there are several spears alone, but this artifact is very special. After research, people soon found that this weapon called the sword-shaped spear, not only the metal part of the unique shape, even the long handle is extraordinary, its outside is bamboo, and then use the tool to hollow out the inside, insert rattan to increase toughness, not easy to break, can play a big role on the battlefield.
Sword Spear-1
>>> the south room > dispatched
The cleaning of the South Chamber was a great success, but towards the end of the day, the archaeologists made another important discovery in the southwest corner.
● Archaeological work is mainly to find ruins, extract ancient information, and use it to study human history.
Modern archaeology pays attention to physical data, then in a variety of information carriers, the text is undoubtedly more accurate and rich, therefore, every archaeological excavation, if you can find the text, it means that there are important gains, its significance is no less than the excavation of several national treasures.
In the southwest corner of the south room of Otsuka in Baoshan Mountain, the team members found a bunch of bamboo jane containing words, fortunately more than 2300 years later, the text on the bamboo jane is still clear, and after careful identification, people finally determined that it was a document that was considered a "dispatch strategy" in later generations.
In the pre-Qin literature, in fact, there is no term "dispatch strategy", it is named by modern people.
● In 1954, a batch of bamboo janes was excavated from Tomb No. 25 yangtianhu in Changsha, and the text of it was a list of funeral rites and funerary items in the tomb. Mr. Ye Gongqi, a famous calligrapher and collector, named it Shu Ce.
From the dispatch strategies excavated from baoshan Ōzuka, scholars not only learned about the funeral rites of the great nobles of the Chu state, but also clarified the names and roles of many utensils and burial utensils in ancient times.
Dispatch
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="275" > East Room</h1>
>> 264 cultural relics > the East Room
The east room is more than 4 meters long and about 1 meter wide, and although the area is not large, it can be said that in addition to the coffin, it is the most important sub-room.
In the Chu tomb, the east chamber is also the head room (box), which is mainly used to accompany funeral vessels or to place sacrifices and wine utensils. In the water of this sub-room, there are floating bamboo containers, which are carefully lifted out one by one after being numbered.
Soon, people learned that in this kind of utensils called bamboo stalks, there was indeed a large amount of food, including peaches, venison and so on. Floating in the water, in addition to the bamboo baskets filled with food, there are also some large lacquered wood utensils.
East Room
When extracting a lacquer case, the team members accidentally found that the paint case was missing four legs and was obviously vandalism.
The tomb is intact, but why was the paint case destroyed?
What is the purpose of destroying it?
After fishing out the floating funerary items such as bamboo steaks and lacquered wood, the archaeologists began to slowly extract the water in the east chamber and clean up other artifacts layer by layer as the water level dropped. At this time, people noticed that this small sub-room was also full of funerary goods. There are a total of 264 funerary utensils stored in the east room of Otsuka in Baoshan Mountain, mainly bronze ceremonial vessels, lacquered wood ware, and pottery, of which 19 are bronze dings that represent hierarchical status. In addition to the copper ding, hollow copper cup (may be a pen holder), wrong red copper pot, wrong gold and silver copper zun, copper Dun, copper jian, copper pendant, because of the decay of the bracket, coupled with the disturbance of water, most of these bronze ceremonial vessels left their original position or upside down or standing.
However, compared with the bronzes in northern tombs that are often squashed or smashed due to the collapse of the rafters, the bronzes excavated from Baoshan Otsuka are perfect in terms of the integrity of the shape of the vessel or the preservation of the metal itself. When this batch of exquisite artifacts was extracted, several of them immediately attracted people's attention. Soon, they were recognized as national treasures that belonged to "China's first" at that time.
>>> East Room > China's first national treasure: the Phoenix Bird Double Cup
The East Room extracted a uniquely shaped wine glass, known as the Phoenix Bird Double Cup, which has a special purpose, that is, it is used to drink a cup of wine between men and women during the night of the cave flower candle. The custom of exchanging glasses of wine is also well known, but in history, there has been no physical object, and this Mandarin duck wine glass is the earliest physical object.
The reason why the archaeologists concluded that the double cup was used on the night of the cave flower candle was that there was a small hole in the bottom of the cup that connected the two sides of the cup, and when the two drank at the same time, the party with the largest amount of wine could drink more, reflecting the mutual understanding between the husband and wife.
Bird double cup -1
Bird double cup -2
>>>> East Room> China's first national treasure: a dresser box
In addition to the "China First" Mandarin Duck Cup, which embodies the romantic culture of the Chu Kingdom, there are also "China's First" wine set boxes, as well as the "China First" lacquered character painting "Welcome Travel Map" painted on a lacquered piece.
In the minds of many scholars who study ancient art, the box unearthed by Bao Shan, known as lacquer, can be called a "holy relic" because it is the earliest lacquer painting in China, and some people say that it is the earliest comic strip in the world.
"China's first" wine set box
Lacquer-1
Lacquer-2
This lacquer (lián) is the ancient people used to pack the dressing goods box, the large box is round, built-in several small boxes, the small box shape is different, each has its own function, the production is very exquisite, there are horseshoe shape, oval, round, etc., its lid side is named "Welcome Travel Map" pattern, a total of 26 characters, 4 cars, 10 horses, 9 geese, 1 pig, 2 dogs.
"Welcome Travel Map" meticulously depicts the life of interpersonal interactions between the nobles of the Chu state during the Warring States period, depicting a scene in the autumn of a certain year, when Shang dafu A went to visit Shangdafu B and was warmly received by him. It is born on top of a box, so it can be said that he has a head and a tail, or it can be said that it is headless and tailless, so some people jokingly call it the earliest comic strip in China.
>>>>> East Room > China's first national treasure: China's first statue
The national treasure unearthed in the East Room also includes the "First in China" wrong gold and silver bronze statue, known as "China's first statue", mainly to show its one of the wrong gold and silver craftsmanship, but unfortunately this process has been lost.
Seeing so many funerary items, excited, after careful analysis, the archaeologists also inadvertently solved the mystery of the destruction of the paint case. It turned out that these bronzes, pottery, and even bamboo and lacquered wood were initially stacked at the southern end of the east room, and due to the excessive number of utensils placed in layers, the burial even caused the sub-room to be closed, and finally, people had to temporarily remove the foot of the lacquer case, and only reluctantly covered it.
The East Chamber, where a large number of bronze vessels have been excavated, is considered to be an important space for displaying sacrifices and sacrificing, but at that time, it was elegantly called the "drinking room".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="274" > West Room</h1>
>> West Room > China's first national treasure: China's earliest folding bed
The West Chamber, opposite the East Room, is 3.88 meters long and only 44 centimeters wide, making it the smallest of the four chambers. There are 54 artifacts excavated in the West Chamber, including copper cups (hé), copper plates, soup dings, bean-shaped lamps, etc., most of which are daily living utensils.
However, between these seemingly ordinary utilities, a wooden bed was found, and a bamboo fan and a bunch of bamboo jane were carefully placed on the bed. Bamboo fans are used to cool off, is bamboo jane a pastime? Unfortunately, for some reason, when people opened this bundle of bamboo afterwards, they found that there was no word on it.
Although the "Wordless Heavenly Book" left people with regrets, when this wooden bed was successfully extracted, the team members were surprised to find that it had multiple joints that could be folded, and they were all tenon structures, folding up to only 60 centimeters in size. Such a cleverly designed, beautiful and practical disassembly bed is exquisite even today, not to mention that it is the whimsy of the ancestors of the Chu state more than 2300 years ago.
The folding bed unearthed from Baoshan Ōtsuka proved to be the earliest folding bed found in China so far.
Next, the archaeologists also found a cultural relic that can be called "China's first" in the north room.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="273" > North Room</h1>
>> North Room > China's first national treasure: the Dragon's Head Staff
The north room is 4.93 meters long and 1.23 meters wide, and is mainly used to hold daily utensils, and a total of 47 artifacts have been excavated from here. There are not many utensils in the north room, and they are arranged relatively neatly, and there is a bamboo mat on the west side of the sub-room, on which is placed a wrong gold and silver dragon head staff. Wrong, that is, a metal fine decoration technique that inlays or smears gold, silver, copper and other metals on utensils, which appeared roughly in the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period and flourished in the Warring States and the Two Han Dynasties.
China's first dragon head staff -1
China's first dragon head staff - 2
Many of the bronzes unearthed from Baoshan Otsuka use the wrong gold and silver process. But this piece of dragon cane bronze texture of the head of the staff, the shape is very beautiful, its dragon-shaped eyes are slightly open, the two corners are retracted, the mouth is exposed, the tongue is a blade, the whole body is made of gold and silver to stagger out of the cloud pattern and diamond pattern, the line is smooth, the color is gorgeous, it is a rare treasure, and later known as "China's first dragon head staff".
China's first dragon head staff - 3
>>> North Chamber > Bamboo Jane: Encyclopedia of the Chu Kingdom
In the middle of this sub-room, the archaeologists found a large number of bamboo janes, and this time they found neither the relatively commonly used dispatch strategy nor the "Wordless Heavenly Book", but 288 Jian Mu that recorded judicial documents, divination, sacrifice prayers and many other contents. This batch of bamboo janes is not only rich in content, but the most precious thing is that its chronology is very clear, which provides very valuable information for the study of the politics, economy, law, history, geography, writing and calligraphy of the Chu State. In addition to the previously discovered dispatch strategy, the number of Jian Mu excavated from Baoshan Otsuka was as many as 445 pieces, which was later known as the "Encyclopedia of chu" and became one of the major discoveries of Baoshan Ōtsuka.
Encyclopedia of the Chu Kingdom
>>>> the North Room > Bamboo Jane > Zhao Camel
According to the text in the bamboo jane, the archaeologists also solved the mystery of the identity of the owner of the tomb in advance. Originally, the owner of the tomb was named Zhaotuo, who served as the left yin of the Chu state before his death, in charge of the national judiciary, equivalent to the third in command of the Chu state.
During the Warring States period, the official system of the Chu state was slightly different from that of the Central Plains, and the monarch was not under the Xiang state, but the more powerful Ling Yin, and Zuo Yin was below the Ling Yin.
In addition to his official position, the nobility of the identity of the owner of the Otsuka Tomb in Baoshan is also reflected in his surname , the surname of Zhao. At that time, the Chu state had three major surnames, Qu, Jing, and Zhao, and the zhao surname was said to be a descendant of King Zhao.
Historically, the Chu state had three major royal families of the Qu clan, the Jing clan, and the Zhao clan, collectively known as the "Three Lu" (lǘ). After Qu Yuan was degraded, he once served as the Sanlu Doctor who presided over the temple sacrifices and also managed the education of the children of the three ethnic groups. There is a saying in academic circles that these three tribes are all branches of the King of Chu, and the source of the Zhao clan is the descendants of king Chu Zhao who failed to inherit the throne, but this claim has long been questioned. Many people believe that the Zhao clan takes the clan as a surname, and the descendants of the King of Chu Zhao belong to the Chisel Affiliated Association. Now, Bao Shan Chujian's discovery has finally solved this question.
Qu yuan
In the Baoshan Chujian sacrifice prayer text, it is recorded that the distant ancestor of the tomb owner is the grandson of the Yellow Emperor Lao Tong, and the first of the near ancestors is precisely King Chu Zhao.
● King Zhao of Chu:
In addition, according to the chronological text on the bamboo, people also accurately judged the time of the burial of the Zhao Camel, which was 316 BC, the 25th day of the sixth month of the Chu calendar. From 328 BC to 299 BC, during the reign of King Huai of Chu, the State of Chu entered the peak of its glory and became the largest state at that time. However, this period was also a turning point in the decline of the Chu state, less than a hundred years after the destruction of the Chu state.
Burial -1
Burial -2
Chu Guo-1
Chu Guo-2
In order to ensure the safety of cultural relics, it takes a lot of time to extract cultural relics from stagnant water, and it takes a lot of time to take each piece. In addition to the long -- "upside-down golden hook" at the beginning, even if you can squeeze into the narrow burial chamber later, you still have to stand in the bone-chilling water to continue to work, and many team members work for more than ten hours before taking turns to rest.
In this way, four teams of more than 20 team members worked for five days and five nights, starting from the morning of January 11 and not until January 16, when the cleaning of the four sub-rooms near the periphery was nearing the end.
A rafter room full of artifacts
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="272" > coffin</h1>
>> coffin room > China's first national treasure: China's first colored coffin
On the morning of January 17, the cleaning of the coffin room finally began, the slab was uncovered, and people soon discovered that the burial tools of Baoshan Otsuka were not only well preserved, but also extremely complex. Compared with the outermost huge rafter, the coffin chamber (inner rafter) with a length of 3.84 meters and a width of 2.49 meters is divided into three layers inside and outside, the outermost layer is a rectangular outer coffin, the middle is a hanging bottom arc middle coffin, and the inner layer is a square coffin painted throughout.
The innermost layer of the colored coffin
Late on the night of January 17, after stripping off the silk fabric wrapped in the inner coffin, the archaeologists hoisted it, loaded it into a car, and transported it back to the Jingmen Museum for internal cleaning. Seeing this black and red on the outside, brilliantly painted square coffin, the archaeologists quickly realized that this cultural relic was extraordinary.
On both sides of the coffin lid and the square coffin, the Chu people used gold powder, silver powder, red lacquer and yellow lacquer to draw nine sets of exquisite patterns of four dragons and four phoenixes, of which the dragon was a double body, coiled into a rounded square, and the phoenix walked on top of the dragon pattern with its head held high, spreading its wings and tail. After repeated verification, people quickly confirmed that this best-preserved dragon and phoenix coffin in China can be called China's first color coffin.
Coffin chamber
Silk on the coffin
Colored coffin-1
Color coffin-2
>>> the owner of the > tomb > the funeral items
According to past archaeological experience, the inner coffin of ancient tombs often placed some of the tomb owner's favorite objects when he traveled to another world. Uncovering the lid of the coffin, the team members found that only sensen's skeleton remained from the tomb owner. After preliminary observation, the owner of the tomb is obviously male, 1.7 meters tall, and buried with his head on his east and feet and on his back and straight limbs when he was buried.
After more than 2,300 years of invasion, the silk fabric he wore when he was buried also decayed along with his flesh, but his arms and feet had obvious traces of silk straps, which should be a kind of burial custom. For this skeleton, later human physique identification showed that the owner of the tomb was between the ages of 35 and 40 when he died. At such an age, he was able to enter the power core of the powerful Chu state, which had a lot to do with the aristocratic status and position "hereditary system" at that time.
The owner of the tomb is Zhao Camel
Shōmo Corpse Bone-1
Shōmo
The funerary items unearthed in the inner coffin are the two sheathed bronze swords with jade and bone handles. In the two corners of the northwest and northeast of the inner coffin, three exquisite jade bi and some small pieces of jade are placed; the owner of the tomb wears two jade bi, and two pieces of jade bi are placed on the waist. After statistics, a total of 49 funerary items were unearthed in the coffin room.
Two bronze swords
Yu Bi
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="255" > list of artifacts</h1>
The completion of the cleaning of the inner coffin means that the excavation of the Ōtsuka in Baoshan has been a complete success. Since the excavation, the number of cultural relics unearthed from Baoshan Otsuka has reached a staggering 1935 pieces.
▌ 59 pieces of bronze ceremonial vessels
▌ 14 pieces of musical instruments
▌ 72 weapons
▌ 445 pieces of Jane
▌269 household items
▌1435 pieces of carriage and horse tools
end:
Time flies, more than 2300 years seems to be a long time, but it is like gently shaking a lupine, waving by. The Chu Empire, which was once fiery and prosperous, could not escape the fate of history, collapsed, overturned in the dust of history, and the honorable princes and generals and beautiful palaces also disappeared, but its brilliant, extremely romantic culture was like a torch, it has never been extinguished, or the undercurrent is turbulent or blazing, in the huge cultural treasure house of the Chinese nation, the true color does not change, magnificent and stunning.
（END）
Some of the artifacts:
Have a cup of fun
China's first makeup box
Sword-shaped spear
China's first brush
Copper mirror
Bronze